In the field of medicine, pathology, or the like, there has been proposed a system that digitizes an image of a cell, a tissue, an organ, or the like of a living body, that is obtained by an optical microscope, to examine the tissue or the like by a doctor or a pathologist or to diagnose a patient based on the digitized image.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-37250 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a method in which an image optically obtained by a microscope is digitized by a video camera with a CCD (charge coupled device), a digital signal is input to a control computer system, and the image is visualized on a monitor. A pathologist performs examination while watching the image displayed on the monitor (see, for example, paragraphs [0027] and [0028] and FIG. 5 of Patent Document 1).
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-148895 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 2) discloses a system in which position information is set on an arbitrary portion in such an image, for example, on a portion which may have a disorder, and content information is set in relation with the position information. In this system, a mark as the position information is displayed on the image, a selecting operation with respect to the displayed mark by using an input apparatus such as a mouse is accepted, and a comment as the content information registered in relation with the position information is displayed (see, for example, paragraph [0027] and FIG. 5 of Patent Document 2). The function in which position information or content information is set in relation with an image, and an image visually compounded with the position information or the content information is displayed is referred to as an “annotation function.”
Meanwhile, in recent years, there is proposed an apparatus capable of displaying image data of one observation target object, the image data being of a plurality of positions different in an optical axis direction of a microscope, such that the image data are continuously displayed in the order of the optical axis direction (see, for example, paragraph [0023] and FIG. 3 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-500643) (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 3). Herein, a set of image data of one observation target object, the image data being of a plurality of positions different in an optical axis direction of a microscope, is referred to as “Z-stack”. According to such an apparatus, by continuously displaying, in an optical axis direction, image data of a plurality of positions different in the optical axis direction, a user can get a feeling of observing images while changing focuses of a microscope.
In a case where an image on which position information with regard to an annotation is set and an image on which position information is not set are mixed in a Z-stack, an image including a mark, which is obtained by visually compounding the position information of the annotation, and an image including no mark are continuously displayed in a mixed manner on a display screen. As a result, there is a fear that an observer may miss the mark and therefore may miss a disorder. For example, in the continuing display, owing to speed of changing images by an observer, the observer may miss a mark included in an image locating at the middle of the images.
In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, it is desirable to provide an information processing apparatus, a method and computer-readable medium for avoiding a risk of missing an annotation by an observer.